Open records advocate sees limits to transparency

Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan created the Public Access Bureau in 2004 -- a first-ever effort in Illinois to help the public get a clearer picture of how state and local governments make decisions.

The office has trained and advised public officials on open meetings and open records issues. It also has helped mediate records disputes between citizens and government agencies, an effort she says has been stymied by a lack of teeth.

Madigan, a Democrat pondering a run for governor in 2010, says she wants to do more. Seizing upon the public outcry for change following the scandalous tenures of two successive governors, she is seeking more authority to settle records disputes and penalize public officials who violate the law.

"The important thing is we put an end to what has become a culture of secrecy in this state," Madigan said during a recent Tribune interview. "The opportunity is ripe to do it. We have the evidence, and we have the right environment for it."

Madigan, the daughter of longtime House Speaker Michael Madigan of Chicago, is pushing legislation to strengthen her office's power to define and enforce public records laws -- an effort endorsed by a commission appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn to find ways to fight corruption.

Yet while Madigan portrays herself as a champion of open government, even she struggles to define how much transparency is enough.

During a recent visit to the Tribune to tout her reform agenda, Madigan sided with government lobbyists who support the sweeping exception to public records law allowing officials to keep secret "preliminary drafts, notes, recommendations, memoranda and other records in which opinions are expressed, or policies or actions are formulated... ."

Madigan argued that public servants cannot effectively do their jobs with the public looking over their shoulders during the early stages of a public project. "I am not bothered by the preliminary draft exemption," she said. "Because if you want people to engage in dialogue you want them to be free to do that."

She also disagreed with critics of Illinois law who say performance evaluations of public employees should be open.

"It is a struggle enough to get supervisors to legitimately evaluate employees," Madigan said. "You think that supervisors are going to be honest on those knowing they will be turned over? I don't think they will be."

Officials in several states where such records are public say such concerns are unfounded.

Colleen M. Murphy is executive director of Connecticut's state commission on open records, which was created in the post-Watergate era and has binding authority to settle records disputes.

"We have found that when our supervisors know their work product is going to be public, they tend to be even more honest and thorough," she said. "When you know something is going to be public, you tend to do it right."

Murphy noted her own performance evaluations have been a public record her entire career. "We're all public employees," she said. "The public is paying my salary. That is just the way it goes."